– “Can you imagine that?”
Yep; that’s conspiracy theory! People think they’ve found “hidden knowledge” and they get very arrogant and condescending.
– – – – – – –
People often think they’re banned when they aren’t – come to think of it, that’s probably another effect of conspiracy theory; they get convinced that their ‘Truth’ is being suppressed. The truth gets obscured all the time, obviously, but that’s no excuse for seizing upon bullshit conclusions and berating anyone who questions them. But I’m digressing. People sometimes think they’re banned when they’re not. As far as I know, Paul was merely asked to stop posting comments that assumed overarching conspiracy; I didn’t see him told that he was banned. But when I met him he seemed to think that his comments were being blocked by the blog software. Node made a similar mistake at squonk.tk.
And sometimes a moderator clicks a wrong button and someone gets banned by mistake. On one occasion Craig himself got locked out!